


Should It Break and Burn and End

by agentsimmons



Series: Begin Again [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Adorable Tony Stark, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Alternate Universe - Office, BAMF Natasha, Basically Natasha Is Badass And Frightening In Any Verse, Confused Tony, Developing Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, M/M, Natasha Is a Good Bro, POV Tony Stark, Protective Natasha, Purple Shirt of Sex, Science Boyfriends, Shovel Talk, Tony Being Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-23
Updated: 2015-09-23
Packaged: 2018-04-22 23:12:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4854269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agentsimmons/pseuds/agentsimmons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If he hurts Bruce, the only thing that will break and burn and end is Tony.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Should It Break and Burn and End

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Palendromical](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Palendromical/gifts).



> Palendromical asked for the shovel talk from Natasha before or after Tony and Bruce's date in _But I Do_. I'm not sure this is what you were expecting when you asked for the shovel talk, but for some reason whenever I get Natasha and Tony together and Natasha is doing the protective thing it turns into ridiculous stuff like this.

Tony feels a little bit like he's sitting in the back of a classroom passing a note back and forth with his crush because he's ignoring the massive pile of paperwork Pepper brought him to sign an hour ago and he's smiling wide enough that if he were to be caught there would likely be an interrogation equal to a teacher asking him to share what's so amusing with the rest of the class. He can't help it though as he re-reads through his conversation so far with Bruce and waits, maybe a little impatiently, for the next one.

` **Do you mind if I break the 24 hour rule? I found this hilarious commentary write up on Richards' latest think piece. Wondered if you'd be interested in the link.** `

` _**I think you broke that rule yesterday when you asked me out again. Not that I mind. Or are there time window rules for texting?** _ `

` **I honestly have no idea. You're definitely not the only one a little green here.** `

` _**That's reassuring. But by all means yes please. His latest was more insufferable than usual.** _ `

` **Somehow I knew we'd agree on that. You are now 87% hotter. http://marvelousnewfrontier.com/article/richards-theory-on-everything-you-never-cared-about** `

He's giddy with anticipation, wondering a little as to what Bruce will say when he's done reading the article and trying to imagine how he's reacting in real time. Will his brow crease? Will he just give a wan smile? Will he do the soft chuckle thing that was super endearing? Or when he reaches that one particular jab toward the end, will he laugh outright in the way that definitely lights up his dark eyes and just completes the gorgeous package?

Tony can't fight his goofy grin at just the thought of it.

"I need your signature."

He barely registers Natasha's voice in his doorway, just sort of waves her in. It's only when he hears the large door shut with an ominous click that he looks up from his phone, eyes darting around in confusion and maybe a bit of wariness if he's being honest. After all, Natasha is formidable. She can take anyone down in the boxing ring and he has this sneaking suspicion that her tenacity for corporate law, with all its dark underbellies and loopholes, comes from some weird ninja past or something else she's not sharing. Of course, he's also been known to let his imagination get carried away with him so he clears his throat and smiles as she approaches with the file.

He forces himself to put his phone down, move his other stack of paperwork to be signed out of the way, and reach for a pen. She sets the file down on his desk and for some bizarre reason pushes it toward him slowly… Wait, seductively? No, again, his imagination tends to get carried away with him.

Then again she only barely retreats and perches her hip on the desk a bit unprofessionally. He just gives her a strange look and decides to ignore it, shaking his head minutely as he opens the file and scans over just what it is his signature is needed for this time. Apparently it's a cease and desist notice against Justin Hammer. He smiles, a little shark-like no doubt, because he's more than happy to sign this one.

"So," he sees her lean in a little again from his peripheral vision, "I take it things went well yesterday?" Her voice is smoother than usual.

Tony looks up with an eager grin when he finishes signing, but then blinks a little because he swears she's leaning far too close now. He leans back and asks hopefully, "Why, did he say it went well? Because I thought it went well and I really hope he..." His sentence trails and grin falls when she pulls back slowly and sits down in the chair on the other side, crossing her spidery legs.

He's beginning to think his imagination is in all of the wrong places. He must be turned on by his finding out he and Bruce have something else in common - because, yeah, Bruce disliking Richards is hot - and now Natasha is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He shakes his head. Not that he's actually imagining her or anything, it's just he'd rather not in general. One, he doesn't particularly have a death wish at the moment and two, he'd much rather have a physicist sitting across from him right now – bonus if he's wearing that purple shirt.

And, oh great, now he's imagining _that_ and he probably looks salacious.

"Something bothering you?" She asks and there's no safe way to answer that question truthfully because it _is_ a little bothersome when you're waiting for a text from the guy you only just met while you're also suddenly bombarded with fantasies of potential office sex with him at some point in the future, should they get that far and Bruce be comfortable with that sort of thing. 

"Not particularly," he lies. "As I was saying, I hope Bruce had a good a time. Did he say anything to the contrary? I mean, he seemed to like it."

Natasha just tilts her head, looks at him for a moment and then uncrosses and crosses her legs so that they've changed positions - and, honestly, is it necessary? Would she be this cruel - and he thinks maybe the answer is still yes - if she knew the effort he's putting forth to turn over a new leaf and _not_ go straight to objectifying a beautifully lean body, broad hands, delicious dark curls and lips that…

"Are you just going to sit there and stare at me?" He asks, perhaps with a little too much bite because _damn_ , he really wants his potential relationship with Bruce to be different. It already feels different. It already feels like more than quick-to-fizzle sexual attraction and he doesn't want to screw that up just because he has "glorious bed skills" that like to make themselves known at inopportune times.

He smiles as he remembers the quirk of Bruce's lips and the timber of his voice when he had used that phrase and it's a much safer progression of thought, but only marginally.

"You _are_ bothered," Natasha says with razor sharp accuracy.

Then she shifts her damn legs again and it gives her away because he's not _that_ much of an idiot. Two times, coincidence. Three times, not likely. He's been with enough people to know when they're trying to seduce him.

His mouth falls open slightly and he studies her with narrowed eyes because he's not entirely sure where this is coming from or where the hell it was nearly two years ago when she was threatening him with a stapler if he even thought about coming on to her. As it stands now, he's really not interested and not only because he's pretty sure she'd kill him after the deed so nobody would ever know.

He starts to say something, he's not even sure what, when his phone goes off and his thoughts scatter. She can play her little game on her own because right now he needs to figure out what Bruce thought of that article. He's well aware that she's studying him, but whatever.

` _**You were right. That was great. The author really went for the jugular there near the end didn't he? It was spectacular.** _ `

Just like that he's smiling like he's 15 again and trying to figure out the best way to respond to that without saying something ridiculously over the top like, "You're awesome. I'm awesome. Let's just cut to the chase and get married." Again, he has a tendency to let himself get carried away with things, especially when they're going well and he really thinks they might already be with Bruce.

He feels Natasha's piercing gaze still on him. On the bright side it dampens his mood a little and keeps him from texting something stupid he'll regret later, but it also makes him want to tack on` **By the way Natasha is in my office and she's acting weird.**`So he does.

"Okay, if you're not going to share anything Bruce might have said then maybe you should—"

"You enjoyed yourself last night, right?" She suddenly asks and his head spins a little because her voice has gone from smooth to ice cold.

Tony blinks a few times, but then smiles tentatively. "I wouldn't be asking you to talk about Bruce otherwise," he explains as if it's not exactly the most difficult equation to work out, because it really isn't. After all, Bruce is… He smiles more genuinely and decides to answer her question. "He's everything you said and more. I mean, I could just tell from his papers that, wow, he had to be something, but he's a little too good to be true, you know?"

"I do know," Natasha says with a small smile.

"Yeah, he was a little shy like you said he'd probably be, but even so he was… breathtaking." Tony knows he sounds a little like he's in puppy love, and hey maybe he is. He had basically been crushing on the man academically before Natasha had started sharing little things about him as someone he'd potentially like to get to know personally. "And I don't care about the shy thing. I just want him to know he doesn't have to walk on eggshells around me. Besides, I got the impression there's more to it than that," beyond just the admittance of his having been with someone who didn't approve of his eating habits. "That there's been others who've hurt him?" She doesn't answer, but her gaze is shrewd and calculating. He doesn't really expect her to answer anyhow. It's Bruce's story to tell.

"And, you know," he continues, "not to jump the gun and do the overly protective thing – although I probably would even if we'd just walked out of there as friends – but if that's the case then fuck those people."

She tilts her head quickly again and her closed lipped smile widens. "You mean that?"

He snorts at her incredulity. "Of course." Then he pauses and looks down at his phone and his face softens. He nods because he knows without a doubt that he does mean it and it feels kind of like an important realization. "Maybe those people didn't see how amazing he is, but I do."

Then before he can even blink Natasha is out of the chair and leaning threateningly over his desk and he can't even register a fight or flight response because honestly he's just hoping she doesn't kill him before he's able to have sex with Bruce, or at least see him in that purple shirt again – which okay, his priorities are still on the basal side, but he's at least _trying_ and he'd like to live long enough to get better at it.

"In case you were wondering, I could kill you at least 23 different ways with just the items on this desk."

"I wasn't," he says and marvels that he even has a voice to speak with.

"So then, here's what you're going to do if you're serious about this and he decides he is too. You're going to be good to Bruce. You're not going to push him into anything he's uncomfortable with. You're going to treat him with all of the respect he deserves because he deserves a damn lot. You're not going to hurt him intentionally and anything unintentional will still be weighed very carefully and if I think there's a problem, you can be sure I'll let you know. Are we clear?"

"This is the shovel talk isn't it?" Tony asks with sudden clarity and not surprisingly she doesn't answer. "I get it. I hurt him, you hurt me. We're very clear."

She gives him a slightly dangerous look and pulls away then, taking the file with her. "It's cute that you think I would only hurt you, Mr. Stark. I can assure you there would be a literal shovel in that scenario." He desperately hopes that's her morbid humor coming through… or that all of these months as her employer he hasn't been misunderstanding her morbid humor as, well, only humor.

"For the record I was planning on doing all of those things anyway," he feels inclined to point out. He has no desire to hurt Bruce intentionally when he's pretty sure doing so would be grounds for having his genius card automatically revoked. "I might not be perfect at this whole thing, but for a guy like Bruce I'm going to give it my best shot if he'll let me. I'd be crazy not to." She seems pleased enough with his answer because she turns and walks to the door. Just as she touches the handle he suddenly wonders about something. "By the way, what the hell was with the little miss temptress act?"

She turns to him with an almost terrifying expression. It's like she's smiling and yet she's not. "Just checking your level of interest," she says evenly. She then looks him over before fixing him with a knowing gaze. "I hope you weren't thinking about me earlier."

He has to applaud her ruthless tactics, or be utterly frightened, so he leers. "Oh, I wasn't."

She nods approvingly, opens the door, and says, "Then we're good here." And with that she and her spidery legs are gone and off hopefully to get Hammer to stop copying Starktech for his weapons.

He blinks several times as he sits back in his chair. He's not sure what to think, but it doesn't matter because suddenly Bruce texts back again and he has to laugh because he can just hear Bruce's exact tone and imagine his slight blush as he reads it.

` _**Oh god. Please tell me she didn't threaten to stab you in the neck.** _ `

Maybe it's his ego, but he's optimistic that Natasha will never have to.

**Author's Note:**

> Because I realized fairly early on it was going to dive down the rabbit hole of being much more lighthearted than the other fic, I tried to use that as a specific atmospheric backdrop. Essentially, Tony is having his post great date/beginning stages buzz, all of his thoughts are all over the place, and it's all nice and unguarded with him being smitten and then Natasha busts in on that while he's vulnerable. I also wanted to play with him still being Tony in the sense that even though he was in a better place than Bruce, like the end of that fic suggested Tony's not perfect with the whole dating thing in this little verse. He's still a little bit manic and prone to some of those tropes we love about him (e.g. his libido, 'ready, fire, aim'). So I hope that the sincerity of Tony's giddy high the day after is still felt in this in spite of the goofiness. As for Natasha, I still wanted her to be a force to be reckoned with who's not afraid to manipulate a situation and cross certain boundaries if it fits her moral compass. (Alas, Reed Richards. Always the butt of jokes in Tony fics. Speaking of, the website name is fake and to my knowledge an unregistered domain.)


End file.
